Sen. Jon Husted defended President Donald Trump’s energy and economic agenda at a Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant in Middletown with Vice President JD Vance, arguing higher Ohio electricity prices stem from Democratic plant closures rather than data centers. The appearance followed an NRSC memo calling data centers a “sleeper issue” that could endanger Husted’s reelection bid against former Sen. Sherrod Brown and spread beyond Ohio. Husted touted a redirected $500 million Energy Department grant that Cleveland-Cliffs will match for a $1 billion facility upgrade employing more than 1,500 construction workers. The Ohio fight sits within a broader national backlash that has pushed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to halt roughly 1,800 data-center approvals over power and water concerns, even as Trump continues to defend rapid AI infrastructure buildout as an economic and strategic priority.